How to customize the left and right AirPods double-tap shortcut in iOS 11

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You can pause audio from both the left and right AirPods in iOS 11!

It turns out Apple will be rolling out a nice addition to what AirPods will be capable of in iOS 11. With just two taps of your finger, you will be able to pause or play audio in your AirPods from both the left and right sides instead of just the right.

Currently, when listening to music with your AirPods, you can only use the right side earbud as a controller to pause or play audio, trigger Siri, or turn AirPods off. With iOS 11, you'll be able to not just double-tap to trigger a shortcut from the left or right AirPod, but you'll actually be able to set up a different shortcut for each one. Plus, double-tapping now includes a couple of new shortcut options. Here's how to customize it.

As a reminder, this developer beta feature may or may not end up in the final public launch of iOS 11, coming this fall.

Apple occasionally offers updates to iOS, watchOS, tvOS, and macOS as closed developer previews or public betas for iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and Mac (sadly, no public beta for the Apple Watch). While the betas contain new features, they also contain pre-release bugs that can prevent the normal use of your iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV, or Mac, and are not intended for everyday use on a primary device. That's why we strongly recommend staying away from developer previews unless you need them for software development, and using the public betas with caution. If you depend on your devices, wait for the final release.

How to customize the left and right AirPod double-tap shortcut in iOS 11

Launch the Settings app on your iPhone.

Tap Bluetooth.

Tap Left or Right under Double-Tap on Airpod.

Select from the available double-tap shortcuts, including:

Siri

Pause/Play

Next Track

Previous Track

Tap the back arrow at the top left of the screen.

Select the other AirPod.

Select the same or a different double-tap shortcut.

Once enabled, you can just double-tap either side AirPod to trigger the control. Now, all you have to do is remember which AirPod triggers which shortcut!

How to disable double-tap shortcuts for the left and right AirPods in iOS 11

If you find yourself skipping tracks or pausing songs because you accidentally double-tap your AirPods too often, you can disable the feature.

Launch the Settings app on your iPhone.

Tap Bluetooth.

Tap Left or Right under Double-Tap on Airpod.

Select Off.

Now you can tap, double-tap, smash, or throw your AirPods (which I don't recommend) without accidentally triggering the double-tap shortcut.

Any questions?

Do you have any questions about how to enable and customize the double-tap shortcut for AirPods in iOS 11? Put them in the questions and we'll help you out!

That's not correct. As dimitri has mentioned, you've always been able to play/pause by tapping either EarPod - I've done that from day one as found it way more useful than the Siri functionality. The change in iOS 11 is that it's also adding ability to skip or reverse tracks, plus allows you to assign a different function to specific pods.

What about Press and Hold as a trigger? What about Volume Up and Volume Down as options? Adjusting volume should be a primary function of headphones; triggering and asking Siri to do it isn't acceptable.

Something like this as a setup would be nice:
Single Tap for Play/Pause on both.
Press and Hold left for Volume Down.
Double Tap left for Next Track.
Press and Hold right for Siri.
Double Tap right for Volume Up.

AirPods don't have touch sensors. They have proximity sensors that can tell when they're in your ears, and they have accelerometers to detect taps. So they cannot detect longs presses or "press and hold."

Perhaps they'll find a way to squeeze new sensors in the next iteration of AirPods?

They could use triple taps I suppose. Thats no thing I like about the user controls on the Bragi Dash. But. like you said they have the touch sensors built in. But I like the idea of expanding the controls like that.